Boys charged with BB gun

Two Hagerstown teenagers were arrested Thursday outside the Washington County Head Start building on West North Avenue after a teacher reported seeing a youth with a gun behind the building at around 4:30 p.m., Hagerstown Police said.

The gun turned out to be a handgun-style BB gun, Sgt. Paul Kifer said.

A 13-year-old boy and a 14-year old boy were each charged with possessing a firearm on streets, alleys or public ways, Kifer said. The boys were released to their parents, Kifer said.

Kifer said the juveniles were part of a group of four or five males with estimated ages of 10 to 14 that were seen in the area.

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Kifer said the two boys were seen shooting at a pole. No damage was reported and no one was hurt, he said. The younger boy had the BB gun tucked into the back of his waistband, he said.

Classes let out of the school at 4 p.m., said a man in the school in the Martin Luther King Center at 131 W. North Ave.

By the time police arrived outside there were 21 youths at the after-school program in the Memorial Recreation Center, which is east of the school, Rec Center Director Ruth Monroe said. She and the youths didn't know anything was wrong until police arrived in the parking lot between the Rec Center and the school.

Dozens of youths and some adults hung around the parking lot and the front yard of the Rec Center while the boys were arrested and police interviewed people.